My negatives

The aim when I took these pictures was to learn about how to photograph interiors and get the maximum tonality out of  the negatives. I am learning about the Zone System which is very useful to know if you want to achieve detail in highlights and shadows and also I am developing the film pushing the amount of time (or giving N+1 development) so that the upper zones or highlights have been pushed up a further zone but the shadows and lower zones stay where they are achieving this way a greater tonality.

I have a diagram that explains what happens  to the tones with different developing times (the roman numerals refer to the different tonal zones):

To get an even better tonality I developed the film for 20 minutes and the developer was diluted in a 1-100 proportion. I used Rodinal which was patented by Dr. Momme Andresen in 1891.  It is the oldest continuously-produced developer formula in the world. At high dilutions Rodinal works as a compensating developer, which means that as the chemicals get exhausted they stop working on the highlights but continue working on the mid tones, thus preventing blown highlights.

There is an useful website to get correct times for developing, it is www.digitalthruth.com

The film I used is Rollei Pan25  which, according to the ad, offers outstanding resolution, sharpness and edge contrast, coupled with extremely fine grain and a long tonal range. This film is ideal where maximum quality is required, and its clear base makes it perfect for scanning. The only fault is that the film is quite thin and it curls a lot making it difficult to scan the negatives an quite fiddly in general.

I took this pictures with a classic medium format camera ( Hasselblad Super Wide). This is the technical data for the following images:
Colour Darkroom:

Meter readings: the floor was on zone II and the sink on zone VI
Aperture: f11, 6 minutes
Sculpture workshop:

Meter readings: the girder was on zone II and the sink on zone VI
Aperture: f11, 150 seconds
Type room:

Meter readings: the back of the room was on zone II and the highlight under the fluorescent light on zone VII
Aperture: f11

Michael Kenna

These pictures were taken by Michael Kenna, who was born in 1953 in Widnes, Lancashire, UK.  He is well known for his night photography and his long exposures. He transmits a lot of emotion with his work, making haunting images out of the landscapes he photographs. One of his influences was photographer Bill Brandt with his high contrast atmospheric black & white prints.  Michael Kenna was born in quite an industrial area and this had a definite influence on his photography and how he visually approaches structures. Most of his photography has an architectural content. In these pictures he presents a beauty from industrial structures captured by the ethereal light that only night photography and its subjective and unpredictable character can provide.

Golden Gate Bridge, Study #2, San Francisco, California, U.S.A. 1988

The Rouge, Study 5, Dearborn, Michigan, U.S.A. 1992

Ratcliffe Power Station, Study 44, Nottinghamshire, England. 2003